When the Market Wants “Perfect” Tomatoes
A tomato is not a complicated thing to grow. It is, however, a difficult thing to grow well without chemicals in Zambia. This is largely due to one pest: Tuta absoluta. The tomato leaf-miner arrived on our turf around 2016 and has since become the defining nightmare for local tomato producers. A household survey conducted in 2018 across Zambia and Kenya (400 farmers in Kenya and 426 in Zambia) found that, among Zambian respondents, 97.9% named it as the main problem they face with tomato […]